Baixo Alentejo Farmers Association considers that the project follows a “political propaganda rationale” and warns of inability to respond to drought “increasingly recurring” in the South.
The farmers of Baixo Alentejo are critical of the study of water supply to the Algarve from the Alqueva dam, announced this Sunday by the government. AT Renaissance, The Association's president highlights that “Water is not an inexhaustible good itself” and that the Alqueva already provides water to an area higher than that projected during the construction.
Francisco Palma argues that “The water that is stored in Alqueva should serve the populations of the Alentejo, The Alentejo Industry, and Alentejo agriculture”, and describes the “Detour” from water “to other regions where there is other forms of water capture, with other dams, be it in the Algarve, Be on another side” like “distort that what is the commitment that the Alqueva came to the Alentejo”.
The president of the Farmers Association maintains that the use of water by the Algarve “It makes no sense”, as “There are also many lands in Alentejo that should also be watered and are not, It just can't get everywhere” – Remembering that the Alqueva was designed to serve 120 thousand hectares of land and that “At this moment we will already with almost with 200 thousand hectares of irrigated land in exploration”.
If it happens, Francisco Palma Alert, “Let's do the same one that is done in other public regadies in the country, Bear one year, Then comes a cycle of droughts, It is no longer able to water, and the water guarantee that existed ceases to exist”, putting “the whole economy” in a position “vulnerable to this expansion that the state wants to have”.
“Alqueva's commitment to Alentejo is to be a strategic water reserve for Alentejo, and not a strategic water reserve for Spain, For the Algarve and for other regions, whatever”, underlines the head of the Baixo Alentejo farmers Association.
The Environment Minister announced, this Sunday, in Faro, The study of the connection between the Alqueva dam and the Santa Clara Dam (Alentejo), To connect to the bravery dam, in Lagos, no Algarve.
Maria da Graça Carvalho said the connection will be possible due to the authorization of Spain to use 60 cubic hectometers of the Guadiana River, allowing to use 30 cubic hectometers for “reinforce” if the ecological flows of the Guadiana were “guaranteed”.
Questioned about the risk of water shortage, Francisco Palma confirms this possibility, Remembering that 2021 and 2022 were “Extremely dry years”.
“We increasingly have the drought phenomenon, which is increasingly recurring and that increasingly affects the south of the country and, With this phenomenon, Only one dam of the alqueva size can ensure year after year water to agriculture, to populations, to the Alentejo industry”, He explained, finishing off that “Alqueva was made for Alentejo, It doesn't go everywhere”.
For the representative of the farmers of Baixo Alentejo, the project “does not have an economic rational, It is another rational of political propaganda”.
“Having the Algarve conditions to have their own water resources through dams, through other sources of water, namely at this time, through PRR, A desalinizer is being made in the Algarve, To also circumvent the problem of lack of water, It makes no sense to divert water from a dam that took a long time to come to Alentejo”, describes Francisco Palma.
Source: rr.sapo.pt
